Given that this is on the general philosophy of board game design, I *think* this is the most suitable forum for it. Anyway, David Morgan-Mar, who create[s|d]* Irregular Webcomic, posted an essay on Designing Games. I thought that people here might be interested in seeing what he had to say on the topic. The essay in question is here.
* The jury's out on what the correct tense is. The comic itself wrapped up last year after more than 3000 strips, but Monday through Saturday he adds a "Director's Commentary" annotation to an old strip, and on Sunday he posts an essay - most of them are on scientific topics, but some are on other things, like this one.
Yes, IWC is a risky one to start reading, but at least now that it's officially finished there's no rush to get through the archive.
Anyway, I did think it was a well thought-out article - while DMM may not be a game designer by trade, he definitely knows enough about the creative process that he wouldn't dismiss it. Recently he's been tweeting about a bunch of MtG draft formats that he and friends have been trying out that have been labelled as "nerdy" by even the store owner where they bought the cards. Once I find out details, I might post them here to see if any of the mechanics from them could lend themselves to a game.